The terms “mythos” and “logos” are used to describe the transition in ancient Greek thought from the stories of gods, goddesses, and heroes (mythos)to the gradual development of rational philosophy and logic (logos). The former is represented by theearliest Greek thinkers, such as Hesiod and Homer; the latter is represented bylater thinkers called the“pre-Socratic philosophers” and then Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. (See the book: From Myth to Reason? Studies in the Development of Greek Thought).
In the earliest, “mythos” stage of development, the Greeks sawevents of theworld as being caused by a multitude of clashing personalities — the “gods.” There were gods for natural phenomena such asthe sun,the sea,thunder and lightening, and gods for human activities such as winemaking, war, and love. The primary mode of explanation of realityconsisted of highly imaginative stories about these personalities.However,as time went on, Greek thinkers became critical of the old myths and proposed alternative explanations of natural phenomena based on observation andlogical deduction. Under “logos,” the highly personalized worldview of the Greeks became transformed into onein which natural phenomena were explainednot by invisible superhuman persons, but by impersonal natural causes.
However, many scholars argue that there was not such a sharp distinction between mythos and logos historically, that logos grew out of mythos, andelements of mythos remain with us today.
For example,ancient myths provided the first basicconcepts used subsequently to develop theories of the originsof the universe. We take for granted the wordsthat we use every day, but the vast majority of human beings never invent a single word or originalconcept in their lives — they learn these things from their culture, which is the end-product of thousands of years of speaking and writing by millions of people long-dead. The very first concepts of “cosmos,”“beginning,” nothingness,” anddifferentiation from a singlesubstance— these were not present in human culture for all time, but originated in ancient myths.Subsequent philosophers borrowed these concepts from the myths, while discarding the overly-personalistic interpretations of the origins of the universe. In that sense, mythos provided the scaffolding for the growth ofphilosophy and modern science. (See Walter Burkert, “The Logic of Cosmogony” in From Myth to Reason: Studies in the Development of Greek Thought.)
An additional issue is the fact that not all myths are wholly false. Many myths are stories thatcommunicate truths even if thecharacters and events in the storyare fictional. Socrates and Plato denounced many of the early myths of the Greeks, but they also illustrated philosophical points with stories that were meant to serve as analogies or metaphors. Plato’s allegory of the cave, for example,is meant to illustrate the ability of the educated human to perceive the true reality behind surface impressions. Could Plato have made the same philosophical point ina literal language, without using any stories or analogies? Possibly, but the impact would be less, and it is possible that the point would not be effectively communicated at all.
Some of the truths that myths communicateare abouthuman values, and these values can be true evenif the stories in which the values are embedded arefalse. Ancient Greek religion contained many preposterous stories, and the notion of personal divinebeings directing natural phenomena and intervening in human affairs was false. But when the Greeks built temples and offered sacrifices, they were not just worshiping personalities — they were worshiping the values that the gods represented. Apollo was the god of light, knowledge, and healing; Hera was the goddess of marriage and family; Aphrodite was the goddess of love; Athena was the goddess of wisdom; and Zeus, the king of the gods,upheld order and justice. There’s no evidence at all that these personalities existed or that sacrifices to these personalities would advance the values they represented. But a basic respect for and worshipful disposition toward the values the gods represented was part of the foundationof ancient Greekcivilization. I don’t think it was a coincidence that the city of Athens, whose patron goddess was Athena, went on to produce some of the greatest philosophers the world has seen — love of wisdom is the prerequisite for knowledge, and that love of wisdom grew out of the culture of Athens. (The ancient Greek word philosophia literally means “love of wisdom.”)
It is also worth pointing out that worship of the gods, for all ofits superstitious aspects, was not incompatible with even the growth ofscientific knowledge. Modern western medicineoriginated in the healing templesdevoted to the god Asclepius, the son of Apollo, and the god of medicine.Both of the great ancient physicians Hippocrates and Galenare reported to have begun their careers as physicians in the temples of Asclepius, the first hospitals. Hippocrates is widely regarded as the father of western medicine and Galen is considered the most accomplished medical researcherof the ancient world.As love of wisdom was the prerequisite for philosophy, reverence for healingwas the prerequisite for the development of medicine.
Karen Armstrong has written that ancient myths were never meant to be taken literally, but were “metaphorical attempts to describe a reality that was too complex and elusive to express in any other way.” (A History of God) I am not sure that’s completely accurate. I think it most likely that the mass of humanity believed in the literal truth of the myths, while educated human beings understood the gods to be metaphorical representations of thegood that existed in nature and humanity. Somewould argue that this use of metaphors to describe reality is deceptive andunnecessary. But a literal understandingof reality is not always possible, and metaphors are widely usedeven by scientists.
Theodore L. Brown, a professor emeritus of chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has provided numerous examples of scientific metaphors in his book, Making Truth: Metaphor in Science. According to Brown, the history of the human understanding of the atom, which cannot bedirectly seen,began with a simple metaphor of atoms as billiard balls; later, scientists compared atoms to plum pudding; then they compared the atomto our solar system, with electrons “orbiting” around a nucleus. There has been a gradual improvement inour models of the atomover time, but ultimately, there is no single, correct literal representation of the atom. Each model illustrates an aspect or aspects of atomic behavior —no one model can capture all aspects accurately. Even the notion of atoms as particles is not fully accurate, because atoms can behave like waves, without a precise position in space as we normally think of particles as having. The same principle applies to models of the molecule as well. (Brown, chapters, 4-6) A number of scientists have compared the imaginativeconstruction of scientific models to map-making — there is no single, fully accurate way to map the earth (using a flat surface to depict a sphere), so we are forced to use a variety of maps at different scales and projections, depending on our needs.
Sometimes the visual models that scientists create are quite unrealistic. The model of the “energy landscape” was created by biologists in order to understand the process of protein folding — the basic idea was to imagine a ball rolling on a surface pitted with holes and valleysof varying depth. As the ball would tend to seek out the low points on the landscape (due to gravity), proteins would tend to seek the lowest possible free energy state. All biologists know the energy landscape model is a metaphor — in reality, proteins don’t actually go rolling down hills! But the model is useful for understanding a process that is highly complex and cannot be directly seen.
What is particularly interestingis thatsome of the metaphorical models of science are frankly anthropomorphic — they are based on qualities or phenomena found in persons or personal institutions. Scientists envision cells as “factories” that accept inputs and produce goods. The genetic structure of DNA is described as having a “code” or “language.”The term “chaperone proteins”was invented to describe proteins that have the job of assisting other proteins to fold correctly; proteins that don’t fold correctly are either treated or dismantled so that they do not cause damage to the larger organism — a process that has been given a medical metaphor: “protein triage.” (Brown, chapters 7-8)Even referring tothe “laws of physics”is to use a metaphorical comparison to human law. So even as logos has triumphed over the mythos conception that divine personalities rule natural phenomena, qualities associated with personal beingshave continued to sneak into modern scientific models.
The transition of a mythos-dominated worldview to a logos-dominated worldview was a stupendous achievement of the ancient Greeks,and modern philosophy, science, and civilization would not be possible without it. But the transition did not involve a complete replacement of one worldview with another, but rather the building of additional useful structures on top of a simplefoundation. Logos grew out of its origins in mythos, and retains elements of mythos to this day. Thecompatibilities and conflicts between these two modes of thoughtare the thematic basis of this website.
Related: A Defense of the Ancient Greek Pagan Religion
